


the heart starts a riot

by yxrtyu



Series: denial is a river [5]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Cussing, Enemies to Lovers, Fist Fights, Friends With Benefits, Implied Sexual Content, Jealousy, M/M, ish, rated 'cause everyone's a pottymouth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:54:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22801318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yxrtyu/pseuds/yxrtyu
Summary: Okay, who is Ricky talking to, and why is the other guy with his stupid man bun making bedroom eyes at him?(How does EJ know the stranger is making bedroom eyes at him? Because he is 1,000% sure that that is how he looks at Ricky. Literally all the time.)Ricky and EJ and a skateboarder whose existence threatens EJ.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: denial is a river [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596217
Comments: 35
Kudos: 170





	the heart starts a riot

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I've been doing my best to push works out, but the creative process has been somewhat slow. Thanks for waiting. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Title inspired by Paramore's "That's What You Get".

When it comes to making decisions, EJ usually keeps his head cool. He can make them once he takes into account all pros and cons and weighs all the options as well as their respective possible consequences.

However, when it comes to deciding what to eat, EJ cannot choose even if his life was on the line.

“It’s not that fucking hard! What do you want?!” Ricky snaps, eyes on the road as he slows to make a left turn. 

“I don’t know! You choose! I don’t care!” EJ says back, irritated by this conversation that he has had way too many times in the course of his life. 

“Yes, you do! You literally shot down every single option I asked! You do this all the goddamn time!” 

“Fuck you, man. I don’t even know why I’m here.”

“You invited yourself! I never asked you to come, you idiot!”

EJ scoffs. “I did no such thing.”

The car brakes at the light and Ricky turns to EJ, the flames in his eyes indicating how close he was to strangling him. “I told you I was gonna get food, you said, ‘Okay.’ And then you proceeded to get ready to follow me. Nowhere in that story did I ever invite your stupid ass.”

“What the fuck ever, dude.”

They both fall silent, aggravated and tired and unwilling to look at each other. EJ starts to look out the window as the car accelerates and watches buildings pass by in a blur while Billy Joel croons on the radio. 

Eventually, he notices that they are slowing down to pull into a parking lot of a small cafe. He had been here once, probably with some girl, and it is a cute place, but he never bothered to come back until now. 

As soon as Ricky shifts the gear into park and turns off the car, he turns to look at EJ with a leveled look, one that can be used to scold little kids, to which he throws back at the other boy a glare because fuck this guy (he will later, but that’s not the point). He’s a senior in high school about to graduate, not some child that needs a timeout. 

“We’re gonna go in here, and we’ll grab some food to take back. Okay?” 

He rolls his eyes. “Fine, Jesus Christ. Get off my ass.”

They both get out of the car and head into the cafe. It’s small and homely, decorated to give off a rustic farmhouse vibe with its wooden counters, shelves, and tables against black lined white brick tiled walls. It isn’t too packed today, EJ notes, as he sees some tables occupied by students studying or people talking. The glass surrounding the cash register contains various amounts of pastries, desserts, and cold sandwiches, but there’s nothing that catches his eye, so he turns to the chalkboard menu. 

“What do you want?” Ricky asks beside him, calm and relaxed, as if the two of them haven’t been bickering in his old Volkswagen.

EJ shrugs. Because he clearly can’t decide. “Just surprise me. I’ll eat anything. But I want some type of protein. And no soy.”

He goes to find a free table to sit at while he waits for the other to order their food. Taking out his phone, he scrolls through social media feeds to find anything of interest (Gina’s story is of her dance school friends having a voguing competition; Big Red boomerangs a new video game; Nini has a picture of tea with her Grandma in the background followed by her attempting to make lumpia; Carlos zooms in on Seb’s face that has face cream all over it with cucumber slices on his eyes), laughing at some memes and twitter threads. Eventually, he gets bored after 30 or so minutes. Locking his phone, he looks up to check the counter to find Ricky and see if he has their food and—

Okay, who is Ricky talking to, and why is the other guy with his stupid man bun making bedroom eyes at him?

(How does EJ know the stranger is making bedroom eyes at him? Because he is 1,000% sure that that is how he looks at Ricky. Literally all the time.)

EJ feels something creep up his neck and spread over his chest (he knows what it is, felt it when Ricky was trying to get with Nini, but he’s not going to admit it), eyebrows furrowed as he watches the two of them interact. Ricky is so goddamn oblivious to how the other guy is acting towards him as he leans into his space and touches him every chance he gets. His object of his… whatever is so himself, so laidback and friendly, and EJ just wants to do nothing more than to shake sense into him that this guy clearly wants him, and—

Oh, fuck no. The guy made Ricky laugh. Like, really laugh. Like laugh as in EJ gets butterflies from Ricky’s genuine smile and glee. 

(The swarm of butterflies throws him off, but it’s something he decides to store away to unpack later. He can go over what it means as soon as this guy gets the fuck out of Ricky’s face.)

(On second thought, he would rather keep that shit tucked away to gather cobwebs.)

His feet are moving and before he knows it, he has slung an arm around Ricky’s shoulders. He knows it’s possessive, and they’ve never done any physical contact outside of enclosed private spaces, but fuck it, he needs to show this stupid hipster that Ricky is not available somehow. 

“Hey, let’s get going,” EJ says while looking at Ricky, completely ignoring the other guy’s presence.

“Oh, EJ, this is Vic. He skateboards at the park I go to,” Ricky explains, big smile on his face, and EJ sincerely hopes it’s because he was here and not because the other guy was.

He only looks at this “Vic” guy, who was dressed somewhat similarly to Ricky, except his clothes were tighter, which allowed anyone to see that the guy clearly worked out, the definition of his arms and pectorals blatantly shouting to the world their presence. Schooling his face into a neutral expression despite how much hate he was feeling for this guy, EJ reaches over from where he was — he is not letting Ricky go, not while this douchebag is still around — and offers his hand out. 

“EJ,” he coolly says. 

The other guy takes his hand in his firm grip and gives him a smile with all teeth, which he would normally find attractive, but he is just too angry to do so. 

“Vic. Nice to meet you, man.”

EJ puts on his best award winning smile and nods in reply, while mentally picturing himself knocking the living daylights out of the man. Then he turns to the shorter boy. “Got the food?”

“Yeah, got you just regs chicken sandwich with a side salad,” Ricky explains as he holds up the bag to show him. “Ready to go?”

Boy, is EJ ever. He musters up a smolder and winks, which only confuses Ricky. 

“Uh…” He laughs awkwardly. Then he turns to… Vaughn or whatever the fuck he’s called. “I’ll see you later, Vic.”

“Yeah, whenever, Ricky,” the older skateboarder says as he waves goodbye to both of them before turning around to peruse the menu. 

EJ removes his arm and starts his way towards the exit with Ricky in tow. It isn’t until they’re in the car that he realizes the younger boy has been looking at him quizzically. 

“What?”

“Nothing…” Ricky starts as he turns on the car. “... you’re just acting weird.”

The two of them head back to EJ’s place where they eat their food followed by EJ doing his utmost to make Ricky forget about Dick or whatever his name is. It works, he thinks, because Ricky is panting his own name into his ear. 

* * *

“Yo.”

“ _ Hey, I’m at the skatepark still. Pick me up? _ ”

“Yeah, sure.”

EJ ends the call and sighs. He really doesn’t feel like doing much today, especially with finals coming soon. The amount of work he has to complete prior to studying was nothing he couldn’t handle, but all he wants to do is just be a potato and watch animal documentaries. Even so, doing things half-assedly was not his style, and he can’t let senioritis get to him even if he accepted admission to NYU’s Stern. 

He also would like some good dicking right now, but in order for him to do that, he’d have to get up, put pants and a sweater on, grab his keys, then drive on over to the skate park and pick up Ricky, but even that seems like way too much work.

He lets out the longest groan as he slumps over the armrest of the couch, bored and unbored. Just as he was about to relax for another ten minutes on the couch for some more unnecessary lazy time, his phone pings. 

19:22 **nsfw ;)** sent:  _ Actually, I might get food with Vic and some other guys. Pick me up after? _

“Oh, fuck no,” EJ says, eyes narrowing at his phone screen. “Fuck no. Fuck no.”

He’s fired up now, a boost of energy getting him off the couch. He puts his nice looking joggers and a jean jacket on (because he’s not about to fuck Nick’s shit up while looking like a slob) in record time. Soon, he’s out the door and in his car, driving well above the speed limit because he needs to get there and hand Mick’s ass to him and let him know what’s up: that Ricky is EJ’s and no one else’s. 

* * *

As soon as he parks the car at the skatepark, he quickly gets out and slams the door with more force than necessary while hoping that he’s able to catch Ricky before he leaves with that asshole. He takes a second at the top of the stairs, using the vantage point to look for either of them when his eyes land on his enemy nearby, and the sight of him and his stupid long hair underneath his backwards cap annoys him. He starts going down the stairs, ready to throw down if he has to.

“Hey,” he shouts at the older guy as soon as he's within his hearing range, half containing his simmering fury, half letting it seep out as he makes his way over to him. 

Vance? Vin? Vincent? Whatever the fuck his name is, looked at him in confusion before recognition settled on his face. He brought out that stupid toothy smile that EJ wanted to slap off of his face and started jogging towards him, unaware of EJ’s murderous intent. 

“Hey, you’re Ricky’s friend. EJ—”

“Yeah, EJ. That’s me,” he cuts the other guy off, throwing all formalities out the window. There was no time to pretend to be friendly. “Listen, you need to stay away from Ricky.”

“Whoa, bud. The hatred is real coming from you,” Vic says as he puts his hands up to surrender, but the motion does not placate EJ any bit. “Are you okay?”

“I fucking mean it, dude. Stay. Away. From Ricky,” EJ growls. 

“Why? We’re literally just friends, my guy.”

“Don’t ’my guy’ me, asshole. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”

Vic looks at him with eyes wide, caught in his crime. EJ doesn’t back down, doesn’t let himself be satisfied with the man’s wide eyed look of surprise. There’s a need to show him that he means business and is not afraid to lay down the law i.e. fuck Vic’s shit up. The skateboarder folds his arms and scowls at him, surprise turning into a seething anger.

“What are you, his boyfriend?”

EJ visibly falters, a fatal mistake on his part which Vic catches. He opens his mouth to say something in retort, anything to defend his threat, but closes it in frustration over the fact that the lack of labels he and Ricky have has been brought to light; he and Ricky were nothing, really, and EJ has no right to keep him to himself. 

Seeing EJ’s lack of response, a smug look settles on Vic’s face. “I see.” He walks closer and leans into EJ’s space, who stands his ground, not wanting to back down and give this jerk the satisfaction. “So... Ricky is technically single, then, huh?”

“He’s absolutely not. You can just fuck right off.”

“But you’re not even his boyfriend. You’re just friends. Even if you were, you can’t make Ricky choose who he wants to date.”

EJ’s nostrils flare as he breathes out to stay calm, to keep his hands from shaking and his mind clear. The words ring of truth, and it irritates him to no end that he can’t deny them. He came here to wage war only to be smacked with the revelation, dealt by the loser in front of him no less, that he has no good reason to. 

“Nothing to say, huh?” Vic taunts, a smirk on his face. He takes another step forward and gets into EJ’s face, a dangerous challenge in his eyes. It makes him uneasy, like the skateboarder has figured out all the holes in his defense and is going in for the kill. Despite the tables turning on him, he does his best not to show any sign of weakness and continues to exert his own alpha aura. 

“Tell me something, though. Does he take or does he give?”

Then EJ sees red. 

It isn’t until Ricky is shouting at him and has his arms wrapped around his waist pulling him away that he sees that Vic is on the ground snarling at him, blood dripping from his nose and a bruise blooming on his left cheek. He himself can taste copper in his own mouth, so he spits it out while keeping his glare on the other man. 

“Get the fuck out of here, pretty boy,” Vic shouts once Ricky has dragged him further away. 

“Fuck you, you fucking second rate Shaun White!” 

“EJ, shit, just stop. Let’s go now,” Ricky hisses, his hand firmly gripping his forearm. 

EJ looks down at the point of contact, and the sight of it pisses him off even more. He shrugs Ricky off and storms away, not even caring to see if the younger boy was following him. It isn’t until he gets into the car that he does see that Ricky is still with him, which mollifies him a bit, but it doesn’t do enough, and he keeps his rage stewing as they drive away. 

* * *

The car ride is silent all the way to EJ’s house. Ricky says nothing, and if he felt any type of way towards what had happened, he doesn’t show it throughout the ride. The silence is kept as they both got out and into the house, EJ making a beeline for the stairs and Ricky doing whatever the fuck he is doing, he didn’t really care at this point. He shoves his bedroom door open and throws himself onto his bed facedown. 

“ _ But you’re not even his boyfriend. You’re just friends. Even if you were, you can’t make Ricky choose who he wants to date _ .”

EJ clenches his jaw when he remembers Vic’s words, and the sight of his smug face comes into his mind. He doesn’t know who he hates more: Vic for being absolutely right or himself for getting in way too deep.

A weight settles on the other side of the bed, but he doesn’t stir. 

“Hey, c’mon. Sit up.”

It helps a bit, Ricky’s presence. But he feels so angry, so full of self-loathing, that he doesn’t want to face him. So he stays silent. It isn’t until he feels his hand on his shoulder, gently tugging at him to flip onto his back. 

“EJ, please. Let me see.”

And it stings even more when Ricky sounds so tired, so small, and he hates that it is all because of him, so he acquiesces and allows himself to be pulled. Ricky’s face comes into view, his brown eyes full of worry. He opts to look at the ceiling instead. 

“He pulled a number on you, that’s for sure,” Ricky attempts to joke as he places a frozen bag of peas against his orbital bone. He winces from the cold contact. “Hold that.”

EJ does what he’s told as he hears Ricky rummage through what was most likely the first aid box. The younger boy comes back into view and dabs an alcohol swab on his bottom lip, the sharp, stinging pain too much for EJ, so he sits up and pushes his hand away.

“Fuck, Christ, that fucking hurts, dude.”

“I know, you big baby, but that cut needs to be cleaned. Skateboarders don’t have the cleanest hands.”

He scoffs and clenches his free fist to distract him from the pain as Ricky continues to perform first aid. As he watches the younger boy’s concentrated face, he realizes that this is the closest Ricky has ever been to him in a way that wasn’t sensual and intense. This moment is soft, doting. It makes his heart flutter and stirs a warm feeling in his stomach, a different warm feeling from when they’re heated and passionate. Even the way Ricky applies antibiotic ointment to his lip is so tender that it has EJ feeling guilty all over again. 

“So,” Ricky starts as he finishes up on his lip. He turns to pack everything back into the first aid kit. “Can I ask what that was about?”

EJ stays silent. He really does not want to talk about today’s event. Instead, he just wants to wrap himself in his blankets and sleep and ignore all the intruding thoughts of Vic’s words, Ricky’s concerned face, and, even more intrusive, Ricky laughing at what Vic said at the cafe the other day. On top of that, there’s still a big box of feelings that’s overflowing and precariously close to bursting that he still wants to keep closed. 

“Are you gonna say something?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” EJ mutters as he lies back down, still not looking at the other boy. 

“Dude, come on. Just talk to me. It’s really not that healthy to keep shit in.”

Silence still. He feels a warmth settling down next to him. It’s close, but not close enough. 

“I’ve never seen you that mad before, y’know. Not gonna lie, it was pretty scary.” There’s movement and Ricky’s head appears above him. “Are you okay?”

The question throws EJ off, and it’s making him wildly uncomfortable along with the recent acts of intimacy so different than what he’s used to that happened just prior. The two of them have seen everything of each other physically, but when it came to emotionally, it was a whole new territory. Kissing, fucking, that was easy, that was familiar. Concern? Caring touches instead of touches made to burn and mark? Those are so new to this… whatever the two of them are, and it’s enough to make EJ want to just go MIA for a few days to give him time to just… reset and pack this shit up. 

EJ has never been good with emotions. Whenever he was hurt or sad, he had no one to turn to. His parents were always busy working, rarely ever home, and he only had his nanny, but even then, the nannies came and went because he would make it his mission to get them all fired. However, they were nice sweet women and did nothing wrong, and he knew that; he honestly just wanted his parents to be around. Ashlyn helped here and there, but it wasn’t enough, and he still clammed up and passed everything off as fine. 

As time passed, he just continued to build walls, keeping everyone at arm’s length, not really connecting to anyone or anything. It’s probably why his past relationships failed. The closest he had ever gotten to having a successful one was with Nini. He felt the most for her, opened his heart up to her and told her how he felt, but he still kept her closed off, unable to admit his faults, worries, and insecurities, and he ended up ruining their relationship by acting out like a child. Even the aftermath he couldn’t handle so well, realizing that maybe instead of coming clean, he should just keep his mouth shut.

It’s also probably why he doesn’t want to go any further with Ricky. Why ruin a perfectly good thing by getting emotionally involved? 

EJ looks into Ricky’s eyes and sees just how much the younger boy cares for him, and it’s terrifying, dizzying. It scares him just how much the boy is making him feel, so he looks away. 

“I’m fine. My face hurts,” he says tiredly. He looks back and sees Ricky biting his lip, unsure and hesitant. Not wanting to see that look on his face, he puts on his usual cool facade and reaches up to pinch the junior’s cheek. “You look stupid looking like that.”

His coping mechanism doesn’t faze Ricky, who only swats his hand away, from changing the way he looks at EJ, like he actually fucking cares about him. It makes him squirm. 

“What’d Vic do to you?”

The mention of his name coming from Ricky’s mouth has him mad all over again coupled with the fact that Vic didn’t do anything except exist, and his very existence threatened EJ. But he’s more tired than mad, and he really just wants to be alone. 

“He’s just an asshole is all.”

“Okay… but you needed to beat him up for that?” Ricky’s eyebrow quirks up. 

“Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed because you’re an idiot, but he’s bad news, and you should just stay away from him.”

Ricky looks at him, thoughtful, mouth tightly shut. It’s silent for another minute, and EJ can just hear the gears working in his head. Then he smirks, the change in his face really throwing EJ on a bend. 

“You’re jealous.” 

EJ narrows his eyes and pushes his face out of the way. “Fuck outta here.”

“Oh my god,” Ricky says, incredulous laughter starting to spill out from his lips. “You are! You’re a jealous little bitch!”

“Please just stop talking…”

Ricky sits up to double over, unable to contain it, leaving EJ to quietly seeth that he was laughing at his expense.

“Oh god, this is too good. You’re fucking adorable.”

And for once in the past few months of them fucking around, EJ feels his face heat up in embarrassment. He turns onto his side to hide, the action making Ricky laugh harder. “I fucking hate you.”

“And I am LIVING for this. This is awesome. This is so great. I feel so alive.”

“Wonderful. Please get out of my house now.”

“No way. Are you… is that you over there embarrassed?”

EJ flips over to kick the younger boy off the bed, not batting an eyelash as he makes a small noise of surprise and pain, but Ricky pops back up like it was nothing and moves to straddle his waist. Once settled comfortably, he leans forward so that their noses were touching, the sudden, casual closeness making EJ blush harder. He pulls the comforter over his face.

“This is the greatest moment of my life. I really feel like I accomplished something here.”

“Congratulations, I hate you.”

Ricky tugs the blanket away and grins at him. “Just so you know, I’m not into Vic.”

The statement alone is enough to improve EJ’s mood as well as have his stomach flip. Then his heart soars once Ricky leans forward, their lips meeting in the most chaste kiss they have ever done. It’s sweet and nice, completely different from their other kisses, and EJ likes it a lot. He even wants more of it, wants to have more of this nice warm and fuzzy feeling, but just as much as he wants to stay like this with Ricky, whatever that means, the cut on his lip still hurts, and he has to gently press on the younger boy’s chest to push him away. 

“Sorry, I don’t think I can kiss right now,” he says apologetically, disappointed he can’t continue.

“Oh, sorry. Right.” Ricky winks at him. “I’ll just kiss you elsewhere.” 

Ricky proceeds to do as he said he would, and EJ’s disappointment melts away along with his worries and thoughts. 

Yeah, he supposes he’ll think about what it all means later.

**Author's Note:**

> You can see this is building up to something hehehehehe. 
> 
> Twitter: @__ieatcereal


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